Adjustable spray heads with aligning means



J. J. NAWALANIC ADJUSTABLE SPRAY HEADS WITH ALIGNING MEANS Filed March 27. 1959 Aug. 8, 1961 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 ma y# mw .d m u m J Aug. 8, 1961 1. J. NAWALANIC ADJUSTABLE SPRAY HEADS WITH ALIGNING MEANS 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 2'?. 1959 INVENTOR. JON/VJ. NAWAAA//C y BY Aug. 8, 1961 .1.J. NAWALANIC 2,995,173

ADJUSTABLE SPRAY HEADS WITH ALIGNING MEANS Filed March 27. 1959 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. Jhw I /1/7 w44 7N/c @fram/:ys

United States Patent C) ADJUSTABLE SPRAY HEADS WITH ALIGNING MEANS John J. Nawalanic, Cleveland, Ohio, assignor to Canadian Ingersoll-Rand Company, Ltd., Montreal, Quebec,

Canada, a corporation of Canada Filed Mar. 27, 1959, Ser. No. 802,360 7 Claims. (Cl. 154-11) This invention relates to improvements in means for adjustably mounting and aiming spray guns for coating a stream of cut fibers preferably provided by a fiber breaker of a fiber-plastic depositor device or other means of projecting cut libers in a stream.

It is an object of the present invention to provide improved mounting means and sighting means for aiming spray guns to coat cut bers, moving in a stream, with liquid plastic or other suitable adhesive material.

' One object of the present invention is to provide an improved means for coordinating the spraying of liquid plastic on a stream of cut fibers emerging from a berbreaker device used to cut ber rovings into shorter lengths.

It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved assembly for cutting liber roving and coating the cut iibers with plastic in which spray heads are adjustably mounted to easily provide correct aiming of the spray heads so that streams of plastic spray from the guns will converge in a common point in the stream of cut iibers.

It is an object to provide a means of adjustably mounting spray heads for use in combination with the fiberbreaker and to provide a means of determining where streams of plastic spray will hit the stream of cut fibers without having to actually spray the liquid plastic, thereby providing an easy and convenient means of adjusting the spray head positions to obtain a common meeting pointfor the sprays and the stream of cut bers.

These and other objects will be apparent from the specification, lappended claims, `and the drawings in which: d

FIG. 1 is a perspective `view of a fiber-breaking device taken at its discharge side and showing the spray guns assembled for use therewith according to the present invention; FIG. 2 is a transverse sectional view of the fiberb'reaking device taken along the lines 2 2' indicated in FIG.` 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view of an adjustable means of mounting spray guns on a common frame in accordance with the present invention and taken along the line indicated at 3-3 in FIG. l;

lFIG.v 4 is an enlarged sectional view showing a spray head'used on the spray guns and taken along the line indicated at 4-4 in FIG. 1;

f FIG. 5 is a plan view of a fiber-breaker and spray gun combination in which the spray heads are substituted by telescoping rod members used to aim the guns so that streams of liquid plastic converge in a common point in a stream of cut fibers;

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line indicated at 6-6 in FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a transverse elevational view taken along the ine indicated at '7 7 in FIG. 5.

The present invention provides an adjustable means )f mounting spray guns on a common frame preferably for use with a liber-breaking device so that guns can :asily and conveniently be aimed to converge streams of iquid plastic emitting from the guns at a common point n the stream of cut fibers being ejected from the fiberareaker device. By the use of adjustable mounting Patented Aug. 8, 1961 AICC 2 means, the guns can be pre-aimed without the necessity of test spraying liquid plastic into the stream of cut fibers in order to correctly position and aim the guns by trial and error. By pre-aiming the guns, considerable time is saved, and in addition the formation of sticky, messy plastic coated fibers that are generally scrapped is avoided.

It is to vbe understood that while streams of cut fiber described here are produced preferably by a fiber-breaker and ejected therefrom, the adjustable mounting means and sighting means for the spray guns of the present invention can be used in combination with other means of projecting a stream of cut fibers such as by blowing cut ibers from a tube.

In the present invention, continuous lengths of iiber 1, preferably glass fiber roving, are broken into shorter lengths of cut iibers and projected from the ber breaking device in a stream 2 of cut fibers, as indicated in FIG. 2. A fiber breaking device 3 comprises a frame 4, a coacting generally cylindrical cutter 5 and a backup roll 6. A motor 7 drives the cutter so as to carry continuous lengths of fiber 2 between the cutter 5 and roll 6 where they are cut and ejected from the device in a stream 2 of cut bers. Generally it is preferred that the stream of cut bers be carried from the cutter a horizontal distance of at least l5 to 20 inches for most operating circumstances.

In combination with the fiber-breaking device 3 or other suitable means carried by the fra-me and used to provide a stream of cut bers 2, the present invention provides a pair of spray guns 10 and 11 which are arranged to direct converging streams of liquid plastic at a common point in the stream of cut fibers 2. The guns 10 and 11 are arranged by adjustable mounting means to be easily and quickly adjusted so the streams of coating material hit the stream of cut fibers at a common point. The adjustable mounting means is adapted to swivel, swing or turn the gun relative to the frame into a position where'streams of liquid plastic emitting from the guns strike the liber material at a desired point.

As seen in FIGS. l, 3, and 5, an adjustable mounting means for the spray guns comprises a ball and socket joint 12 including a generally swingable socket member having a semi-spherical pocket or socket 13 formed by a collar member 14 having a `(.2-shiaped cross section and tubular member 15. The interior portion of the flange of the C-shaped collar 14 is threaded and adapted tov engage the threads of the socket end of tubular member 15 to fasten the collar 14 to tubular member 1S. Tfhe opposite end ot tubular member 1S is rigidly connected to an air conduit 16 which delivers air from the joint 12 to spray gun 11. An air pipe o-r manifold 17 is used to deliver the air to the joint 12.v

The ball and socket joint 12 also includes a generally stationary ball swivel member 18 having aball portion 19 which is adapted toi turn inside socket 13. Both the tubular member 15 of the socket member and the ball member 18 have internal bores 20 and 21, respectively, which communicate with air manifold 17 and Iair pipe 16 to form a part of the conduit used to supply air to the guns. Thus ball 19 pivots inside socket 13 and turns the spray gun, rigid with pipe 16, relative to the frame to cause spray from the gun to strike the stream of cut fibers at -a desired point. It is noted that the spray gun 11 can be rotated and moved in an up-and-down direction or a side-to-side direction by oscillating the swingable socket member about the ball 19.

Each of the spray guns can be traversed about degrees from one extreme to the other extreme position. The spray guns may be swung 180 degrees in a horizontal direction or plane and they may also be swung up and down (in arvertical direction) about 180 degrees. According to the present invention the guns can easily be pre-set to an approximate position, so that only minor adjustment is required, by swinging the guns up or down slightly or turned to one side slightly. The change in angle made by the gun from the old position to new position need be only a few degrees, namely about 1 to 10 degrees in most cases. The angle of rotation is measured, for instance, in horizontal plane by taking the center of the ball and socket joint as the apex of the angle and measuring the angle between the original longitudinal axis and the new longitudinal axis of the swingable member 13.

As best seen in FIGS. 1 and 4, the spray guns 10 and 11 have spray heads 25 comprising a spray cap nozzle 26 having an internal bore 27 for receiving the resin discharge tip, and with -axially spaced grooves 28 for passage of air therethrough. The spray heads 25 also include a retaining ring 29 used to secure spray caps 26 to the body of the associated spray gun or 11.

According to the present invention, correct positioning of the spray guns 10 and 11 can be determined before any spraying is done by removing spray cap 26 and substituting for it a telescoping rod member 32 having a funnel shaped connecting member 33 at one end interchangeable with cap 26.

In accordance with the present invention, each of the telescoping rod members 32 is used to simulate the direction of the stream of sprayed coating whereby the spray guns may be adjusted before using any fiber coating. An enlarged end 34 of the funnel-shaped member 33 is circular in cross section and is fastened to the spray gun body by ring 29 so that it is held in place in the same manner as nozzle or spray cap 26 is held in place. An opposite end 35 or a relatively small diameter end of connecting member 33 is rigidly connected to a hollow rod 39 of suitable diameter. The small end 35 is tubular and has an internal bore only slightly larger than the external diameter of rod 39, thereby providing a tight force iit or welded fit to securely hold the rod 39. The telescoping rod number 32 is shown in an extended position in FIG. 5. Also in FIG. 5, there is shown a relatively small rod 40 connected to the rod 39 and adapted to telescope into a collapsed position within the internal bore 41 of rod 39 as shown in dot dash lines in FIG. 5. Thus, the rod 40 has external dimensions slightly smaller than the internal dimensions of the larger rod 39 to provide a snug but slidable tit so that Ithe rod 40 can be moved in and out of bore 41 as desired.

It can be seen that spray guns 10 and 11 can be easily aimed in predetermined position so that the streams of liquid plastic resin emitting from the guns converge at a common point as indicated at 42 in the stream of cut fibers 2.

Another feature of telescoping rod members 32 which aids the members in simulating streams of plastic coating is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7. In :these ligures, the far end of one of the small rods 40 is provided with a relatively small diameter tell-tale rod 43 which fits tightly in an opening located nearly at the end of the rod 40. The rod 43 is preferably held in a position generally perpendicular to the plane formed through the longitudinal axis of the telescoping rod members 32 so that by observing the point at which the stream of cut fibers hits the telltale rod 43, the spray guns can be aimed to cause the streams of coating material to meet at a point, and to insure that point is properly positioned with respect to fiber stream 2. In this manner, the guns can be aimed to converge the streams of spray coating at a common point substantially in the center of the stream of cut fibers if desired.

When projecting the fiber stream while using sighting rods 32, if the upper end of rod 43 is more heavily coated with fibers, the joints 12 should be adjusted to raise the rods 32 until the upper and lower ends of rod 43 (FIG. 7) are about equally coated. It should be understood that glass fibers, for instance, often have a static c-harge causing them to cling to rod 43, but in any case the fibers are 4 so forcibly projected at 2 in FIG. 2 that they cling to rod 43.

As illustrative of a preferred size of the tell-tale rod 43, the rod 43 is about 6 inches in length and has a diameter of about %2 of an inch. As illustrative of the size of the tell-tale rod relative to the rest of the telescoping rod members, the rod 40 may be 1/4 inch in diameter and l5 inches long, while rod 39 may be 5A6 inch in diameter and 12 inches long.

I have chosen to illustrate my improved adjustable mounting means for spray guns and my sighting means for pre-aiming the guns as `adapted for use in apparatus similar to that shown for forming a fiber reinforced plastic article in United States Patent No. 2,787,314 granted April 2, 1957, to David F. Anderson. It should be understood, however, that my improved adjustable mounting means and sighting means for spray guns may be used for its intended purpose whether or not it is associated with the liber-breaker or cutter of the abovementioned Anderson patent.

For simplicity of expression, the rotatable roll 5 which carries a plurality of cutting blades will hereinafter be referred to as the cutter roll, although, in handling certain types of ber with the apparatus herein disclosed, the action more a breaking of the ber than a cutting action.

The essential parts of the fiber-breaker apparatus about to be described are the above-mentioned cutter roll 5 and a resilient coacting back-up roll 6 against which the cutter blades operate. The cutter roll and back-up roll cut fiber roving into predetermined short lengths and act in combination with the adjustable mounting means of the present invention to provide a fiber reinforced plastic article. A suitable frame must be provided to rotatably support the cutter and back-up rolls and in the present disclosure, this comprises two generally parallel plates 50 and 51, which serve as brackets to support the rest of the coacting apparatus. In order to support my improved device so that the liber-breaker or cutter may be disposed intermediate two resin sprays, I have shown a handle bar 52 having handles 53 at opposite ends to be gripped by the operator. The handle bar 52 is flattened near its midpoint as indicated at 54. The air pipe 17 is held in place against bracket 50 near point S4 by a block 55 which is secured thereto by screws 56.

Three rigid spacer members 58, 59 and 60 are secured between the plates 50 and 51 to provide Ia rigid framework for the coacting rollers about to be described.

The cutter roll 5 comprises a smooth cylindrical body 5 having a plurality of radially extending slots running the entire length of the body and opening toward the outer periphery of the body and adapted to receive standard safety razor blades 63 which are held in place by end caps 63a.

The cutter roll 5 is rotated by a shaft 64 which ts tightly in a bore 65 of the roll 5. The shaft 64 is connectcd to and driven by the driven shaft of motor 7. The shaft 64 extends beyond the -body 5 at its end opposite the drive shaft to receive a bearing (not shown) which is a press fit on the shaft.

The back-up roll 6 comprises Ia rigid annular body 68 which is preferably made of aluminum and has an internal bore 69. The body 68 may have holes 70 which are cut away to save on the amount of metal required. A circular band 71 of suitable metal covers the body 68 and an annular ring of resilient material 72 is bonded to the band 71 to provide a resilient cover or sleeve 72 for the back-up roll which operates in combination with the razor blades 63 to cut or break the liber roving. The cutter roll 5 and back-up roll 6 4are assembled so that there is an interference at their point of tangency so that the cutter roll drives its back-up roll and so that cover 72 is compressed slightly but yet offers enough resistance to each of the blades that the roving is severed between the rubber cover and the blade.

The `back-up roll 6 is rotatably mounted inside of plates S0 and 51 by a suitable means. For instance, the internal bore 69 may have shoulder at each end against which a friction reducing ball bearing 72e is a force t.

Means is provided to drive the cutter roll and the backup roll in a direction to feed continuous lengths of ber between them from left to right as viewed in FIG. 2. In other words, the cutter rol-l travels in a counterclockwise direction and the back-up roll in a clockwise direction as viewed in FIG. 2 and as indicated by arrows in that view.

Means for guiding and feeding continuous lengths of ber roving to the cutter and back-up rolls is shown which comprises a rubber covered roll 73 and a `combined roving guide and brake 74. The guide and brake 74 is L- shaped in section and has an opening 76 in the shorter leg of the member 74 for feeding the continuous roving 1 therethrough. The longer leg of member 74 is lightly pressed against the bottom of roller 73 to guide the roving and provide a slight drag thereon. The longer leg of member 74 is held ina biased position by a spring 77 which urges it in a counterclockwise direction as shown in FIG. 2.

When beginning the ber-cutting operation, a new length of roving 1 is passed through opening 76 and carried between roll 73 and the long leg member 74 to the junction of the cutter roll and the back-up roll and then to the broken line position indicated in FIG. 2. Thereafter, the ber-breaking device may be started by a control switch 79 to provide the stream of cut bers 2.

As previously explained, the spray guns can be properly aimed and positioned before actually spraying any liquid plastic so that once the guns are positioned and the cutter ready to produce a stream of cut bers as above described, production of plastic reinforced ber article can begin immediately with no need for production of scrap material in order to properly use the guns in combination with the fiber-breaking device.

It is understood that in accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes the particular form of apparatus shown and described is presented for purposes of explanation and illustration andy that various modifications of said apparatus can be made without departing from my invention.

Wherever in the specication and claims I have used the term spray gun, II intend to include a spray nozzle.

What is claimed is:

1. In a device for forming a ber-reinforced plastic article comprising a frame, means carried by said frame for projecting a stream of ber material and a pair of spray guns for spraying a ber coating located on opposite sides of the means for projecting the stream of ber material; the combination therewith of an adjustable mounting for each of said guns on said frame whereby each gun may be easily turned relative to said frame to cause the spray from said gun to strike said ber material at a desired point, and telescoping sighting rods, each rod Aattachable to one of the guns to simulate the direction of the stream of sprayed coating, whereby said device may be adjusted before using Kany ber coating spray.

2. In a device for formng a ber reinforced plastic article comprising a frame, coacting cutter and back-up rolls rotatably mounted in said frame, and means for driving at least one of said rolls in -a manner to carry continuous lengths of ber between said rolls, said cutter adapted to cut the ber into predetermined shorter lengtns and eject the cut bers clear of the device in a stream; the combination therewith of two liquid plastic spray guns having spray heads and mounted on a common gun frame which in turn is supported by the frame of the device, adjusting means providing a swivel mounting the guns on the frame member adapted to change the position of the ends of the guns to direct streams of liquid plastic emitting from the guns so that the streams of liquid plastic converge at ra common point in the stream of cut fibers,

each of said spray heads being replaceable by a telescoping rod member adapted to extend to an elongated position whereby the ends of both said rod members are positioned by said adjusting means to meet at a common point in the stream of cut bers thereby providing means of aiming the streams of liquid plastic to hit the cut ber stream without the necessity of spraying liquid plastic resin.

3. The combination of claim 2 in which sighting means adapted to determine the position of the streams of the plastic is located at the end of at least one of the telescoping rod members, said sighting means comprising a tell-tale rod member which is Iattached to said one rod in a position generally perpendicular to a plane formed by the longitudinal axes of the telescoping rod members and adapted to easily determine whether the streams of liquid plastic are aimed so as to converge at a common point substantially in the center of the stream of cut bers.

4. A sighting device for use with a spray gun having a spray nozzle cap provided with a detachable connection with said gun, comprising a second cap having a connection for said gun interchangeable with said detachable connection, and a sighting rod carried Iby said second cap in position to simulate a stream of spray issuing from said spray nozzle cap.

5. In a device for forming a ber reinforced plastic article comprising a frame, coacting cutter land back-up rolls rotatably mounted in said frame and means for driving at least one of said rolls in a manner to carry continuous ylengths of ber between said rolls, said cutter adapted to cut the ber into prodetermined lengths and eject the cut bers clear of the device in -a stream; the combination therewith of at least one spray gun, a ball and socket joint for adjustably mounting said spray gun on said frame for changing the direction of the spray to cause the spray from said gun to meet the cut ber stream at a predetermined point, and a telescoping sighting rod attachable to said gun to simulate 4the direction of the stream `of sprayed coating whereby said device may be adjusted before using any ber coating spray.

6. A device for forming a ber reinforced plastic article comprising means for ejecting a stream of cut bers, a pair of plastic spray guns ladapted to spray streams of liquid plastic convergently into said stream of cut bers, adjustable mounting means for Iaiming said guns, said guns having removable spray cap nozzles, connecting members interchangeable with said nozzles, said connecting members having outwardly projecting hollow members extending coaxially in the normal directions of said streams of liquid, longitudinally adjustable, telescoping rods mounted within said hollow members whereby said rods simulate said streams of plastic when said connecting members are mounted in place of said nozzles and are convergently adjusted to meet said stream of bers at a common point to anticipate the paths of said streams of liquid without the necessity of ejecting said streams of liquid.

7. A device las set forth in claim 6 wherein at least one of said telescoping rods is provided with sighting means adjacent the distal end of said rod, said sighting means comprising a tell-tale rod member attached to said rod in a position generally perpendicular to the axis of said rod and adapted to be positioned in said stream of bers to determine that both said streams of liquid plastic are aimed to converge in ythe center of said stream of bers.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,881,345 Beatty et al Oct. 4, 1932 2,539,324 Pollock Jan. 23, 1951 2,588,927 Houseweart Mar. 11, 1952 2,776,168 Schweda Jan. l, 1957 2,787,314 Anderson Apr. 2, 1957 

